The Adventures of Teaching the Theatre Journal By Gretchen Nordleaf-Nelson Seven years ago, when I began teaching IB theatre,
Initially, their digital journals were empty. So I soon
I required students to make a personal website
realised I needed to assign journal writing and
as a digital journal. I had my students follow the
carve out time for my students to write. After five
guidelines laid out in the curriculum:
years I thought I had mastered the theatre journal! The truth was that I truly did not understand or
‘From the beginning of the course, and at regular
appreciate the impact the theatre journal can have
intervals, students at both SL and HL are required to
on a student’s experience in the drama classroom.
maintain a theatre journal. This is the students’ own
My journey in teaching the theatre journal was
record of their two years of study and should
actually just beginning.
be used to record: The adventure begins . . . Two years ago, while waiting to make copies in • challenges and achievements
our faculty workroom, I picked up an issue of the IB Review and read the article Improving your
• creative ideas
reflection by Dinos Aristidou. The focus of the article was to teach students to think about writing
• critical analysis and experience of live
reflections from different perspectives for different
theatre productions as a spectator
areas of the IBDP program including CAS, the EE and TOK. What I discovered while reading the
• detailed evaluations
article is that reflective writing was actually the type of journaling I wanted my students to
• experiences as a creator, designer,
incorporate into their theatre journals.
director, and performer Preparing for the journey . . . • feedback I felt I had just been handed a new map for • reflections
teaching the theatre journal but I had no idea how to get from point A (students having ideas,
• research
thoughts, and feelings about their work and experiences in theatre), to point B (students
• responses to work seen
writing authentically in a reflective mode on their ideas, thoughts, and feelings about their work
• responses to diverse starting points
and experiences in theatre). Just like any traveller preparing for a new journey I had to unpack the
• skills acquisition and development’ 1
trunk I’d been using to make room for new ideas and new practices. Through unpacking that trunk I discovered that the journals my students were
7
